The present invention relates to a pen included with an electronic apparatus, more specifically, relates to a pen as an input device included with a wide variety of systems, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a personal intelligent communicator (PIC), a personal wireless assistant (PWA), a personal computer (PC), a notebook PC, a wearable PC, a digital video camera (DVC), a digital still camera (DSC), a mini disc (MD) camera, a digital video disc (DVD) camera, a cellular phone, a personal handy phone system (PHS), and a car navigation system.
Most of the prior-art pen-based electronic apparatuses have been equipped with a separate type pen, without a cord tying it to the apparatus. Besides, pens have relatively cheap plastic-made structures.
Such a non-tethered structure has often presented some problems for usersxe2x80x94when taking it out from/into the apparatus, or putting it on a desk or other places within reach before getting the phone, the pen is easily dropped and might be damaged, or may be forgotten. As a result, the apparatus becomes practically useless, or even if it functions, the user has to be patient with an inconvenience.
To address the problems above, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 4-28338 discloses an improved method. According to the method, a cord-tied pen is manually reeled into the apparatus, protected it from dropping or losing. With the method, however, an inconvenience persists: the user has to pull out the pen by hand from the apparatus before operation, and after use, the cord tied to the pen has to be manually reeled-in to accommodate it to the apparatus.
The present invention addresses the problems above. It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide an electronic apparatus including a pen with easy handling. According to the invention, reeling-in and reeling-out of cord are automatically controlled depending on each operation state of an active mode, a semi-active mode (hereinafter referred to as a standby mode), and an inactive mode (hereinafter referred to as a sleep mode.)
To realize the objective above, the electronic apparatus of the present invention is structured below.
(1) The apparatus having a pen and a panel as the input devices includes:
a cord tied to the pen;
a cord-reel section reeling-in the cord;
a rotating section rotating the cord-reel section; and
a control section requesting the rotating section to reel-in the cord.
When the pen is not used, the control section requests the rotating section to reel-in the cord, so that the pen is automatically accommodated into the apparatus.
Furthermore, the electronic apparatus of the invention may be embodied as (2) through (8) below.
(2) The cord described above may be the one on which position data are recorded. In this case, two sections are additionally included. They are a readout section reading the position data and a determining section determining the position to which the cord should be reeled in the apparatus. When the pen is not used, according to the request from the control section, the rotating section rotates the cord-reel section to reel-in the cord until the position where the readout position data corresponds to the determined position data. As a result, the pen is accommodated in a proper position.
(3) The reel-in operation can be performed through a sleep-mode virtual button. The apparatus includes a display laid beneath the panel and the button appears on the display. When the user touches, with the pen, the position on the panel corresponding to the button on the display, the control section requests the rotating section to reel-in the cord. As a result, the pen is automatically housed into the xe2x80x9csleep positionxe2x80x9dxe2x80x94housing holexe2x80x94in the apparatus, and the apparatus goes into the sleep mode as well.
(4) In response to pulling out the pen from the apparatus in the sleep mode, the control section may allow the apparatus to come back into the active mode from the sleep mode.
(5) A pair of magnets may be added to the structure described above. The magnets attracting with each other are attached to proper positions of the structurexe2x80x94one is for the pen, the other is for the housing of the electronic apparatus. The apparatus includes a display laid beneath the panel and a standby-mode virtual button appears on the display. When the user touches, with the pen, the position on the panel corresponding to the button on the display, the control section requests the rotating section to reel-in the cord. In this case, the cord is reeled up to the apparatus until the position where the two magnets can attract with each other (hereinafter referred to as a standby position.) This operation allows the apparatus to go into the standby mode.
(6) In response to pulling out the pen from the apparatus in the standby mode, the control section may allow the apparatus to come back into the active mode from the standby mode.
(7) In addition to the structure described earlier, the apparatus may include a timer to which a predetermined time for the active mode has been set. When the timeout occurs, the control section requests the rotating section to reel-in the cord, so that the pen is automatically accommodated into the xe2x80x9csleep positionxe2x80x9dxe2x80x94housing holexe2x80x94in the apparatus, and the apparatus goes into the sleep mode as well.
(8) In addition to the structure described earlier, the apparatus may include a timer to which a predetermined time for the active mode has been set. When the timeout occurs, the control section may request the rotating section to reel-in the cord, so that the cord is reeled into the apparatus until the standby position described above, allowing the apparatus to go into the standby mode.
According to the present invention, as described above, the cord connected with the pen is automatically reeled up to a position depending on the modesxe2x80x94the active mode, the standby mode, and the sleep modexe2x80x94of the apparatus. This reel-in operation allows the users to use such a pen with a great convenience without worrying about dropping or loosing it.